HIS GIRL FRIDAY

We watched the film His Girl Friday a fast action romance directed by Howard Hawks. This movie fits into the screwball comedy genre. The interaction between Hildy (Rosalind Russell) and Walter (Cary Grant) make this film more than just a romantic comedy. Hildy is supposed to marry Bruce (Ralph Bellamy) but when she goes to tell Walter her ex-husband the news she starts to remember why she married him. The fast pace action of the film is what adds to the already comical dialogue. His Girl Friday is considered a screwball comedy because of its emphasis on humor, the dominant role of Hildy and the acceleration of the plot.
Everything that goes on in the film is associated with humor. Unlike romantic comedies, the main focus of screwball comedies is physical comedy and the humor that is achieved through events. Walter constantly makes jokes at the expense of others. We as viewers also laugh at the way in which Hildy and Walter interact. When Hildy uses Bruce’s money to buy information from another man, Hildy calls Walter to have him pay her back. Walter agrees to give her the money but he does not give her real money, he gives her fake bills. We as the audience find this funny because Walter keeps on screwing up Hildy and Bruce’s relationship and Walter had already gotten Bruce placed in jail twice. It is this comedy that captivates the viewer.
In Bruce’s and Hildy’s relationship Hildy is the one who tells Bruce what to do and what she is going to do. In romantic comedies the man and woman have an equal say in what takes place. But, in a screwball comedy the woman usually is the dominating force. Hildy and Walter are a better match because they both share authority in their relationship. This is the reason why Bruce and Hildy’s relationship doesn’t work. When Bruce wants Hildy to stop work on the paper and go to Albany with him she tells him to wait. She will not stop her work for her fiancé. Bruce tells her again that it is time to go but, she ignores him. Bruce says he’s going to leave but he ends up waiting for her. Hildy’s strong feminine role sets the tone of this screwball comedy.
His Girl Friday uses fast dialogue and long shots to in order to carry out the elements of a screwball comedy. The director does not use many different shots or angles in the film. He holds back on the elements so that the viewer is able to pay full attention to the dialogue and the body language that takes place. The first time in which this takes place is in the opening scene when Hildy and Walter are talking in his office.
There are combinations of components that make His Girl Friday an amazing screwball comedy. This screwball comedy made in 1940 is what gave way to this new genre. Even though this film is black and white, it is a must see film.

UNFORGIVEN

Clint Eastwood pulled out all the stops with “Unforgiven.” This film is about a man named William Munny who is a retired gunslinger. Ever since William met his wife he has neither drank nor killed a man. William’s morals are tested when the Schofield Kid comes to Will’s farm and asks him to help him kill two men in exchange for $500. Even for $500 William would not kill a man unless he rightly deserves it. The Schofield Kid tells William that they are going to kill these men because they knifed a prostitute after she laughed at the size of his wang. This outrages Will but he still tells the Kid no.
The next day, after breakfast, William tells his kids that he is leaving. William goes to Ned Logan’s house to ask for his help in killing the two men who cut up the prostitute. Ned, William’s friend, agrees to go on the hunt for the two men. At this point we aren’t sure as viewers whether Will has it in him to kill a man. Will constantly says that his wife changed him which tells us that he is trying to stick to his morals. Things get worse when William and Ned start to get shot at. The shooting is atrocious and they see the tip of the Schofield Kid’s hat. When they finally get him to cease fire they get him to join their adventure.
Around the campfire that night Ned starts to tell stories about the men that William killed. After awhile Ned asks the Schofield Kid about the number of people he killed. The Schofield Kid says three which Will and Ned obviously can tell is a lie. As they get closer to the town Ned and the Schofield Kid drink alcohol to prepare themselves for the kill ahead. They ask Will if he needs alcohol but he says again that his wife changed him.
When Ned, William and the Schofield Kid finally get to the town where the two men supposedly reside, they immediately go to Skinny’s Bar. As William is sitting in the bar, the sheriff comes in and asks Will if he has a gun. Will says no, not wanting to cause trouble. But, when the sheriff sees that he has a gun they beat him up, almost to the point of death. After this little run in with the police, Ned, Will, and the Schofield Kid leave for a cabin just outside of town.
Once Will is rehabilitated they go back out in search of the two killers. Will finds and kills one of the men. Ned having little hope of finding the other man decides to go home. After Ned leaves, Will and Ned find the second man and the Schofield Kid kills him while he is on the john. As Ned is on his way home he gets killed by the sheriff who thinks he killed the second man. When Will hears this he tells the Schofield Kid to go home. Will goes into the town and kills all the main players responsible for Ned’s death.

The Goodfellas (1990)

Gang violence has always been a big problem in the world. Martin Scorsese takes the viewer into the life of an active gang, in the movie “The Goodfellas.” This award winning movie, which is based on a true story, has an all star cast consisting of Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci, and Paul Sorvino. These actors bring to life the backstabbing world of criminals and con artists.
The movie for the most part is narrated by Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) a notorious gang member. We first see Henry as a boy growing up with Paul Cicero (Paul Servino), a mob boss, for a mentor. As Henry grows older he cannot seem to get enough of the mob life. He stays in the mob and becomes a respectable member of the gang. He makes friends with Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci), a crazy killer and Jimmy Conway (Robert DeNiro), a calm and collective smuggler. As they grow up together, they end up getting into lots of trouble. Tommy is a trigger happy guy that will kill anyone who crosses him the wrong way. His biggest mistake is killing Billy Batts (Frank Vincent) a head mobster. Henry has his own share of mistakes as well. Henry gets involved in the drug business which is what Paul explicitly told him not to do.
Robert DeNiro does an amazing job in playing Jimmy, a smooth, cool mobster. Rob DeNiro has had much experience in playing this type of role. He has been in criminal film such as: Mean Streets, The God Father: Part II, and Cape Fear. In most of Robert DeNiro’s films he is portrayed as a quiet, powerful man. This movie fits that portrayal as well. He didn’t seem to talk a lot other then when he was trying to break up fights or when he had something to say. People say that Robert DeNiro’s persona is depicted realistically. He is said to be one of the most private celebrities and that he rarely does interviews.
I felt that Joe Pesci was able to capture the intense personality of Tommy DeVito. Joe’s character was constantly energetic and found everything annoying which is a role I don’t think most people could pull off. Joe is a compact Italian- American actor which was part of the reason he was chosen for this role. Joe Pesci has acted before with DeNiro in another Martin Scorsese film called Raging Bull. He also acted in Martin Scorsese’s other violent gangster film, Casino. Joe Pesci won an Oscar for his character Tommy and his role as Tommy was dubbed the ninety-sixth best performance in Premier Magazine’s 100 Greatest Movie Characters of all Time.
There were so many things that made this movie so great, but all in all I found the acting to be the thing that tied everything together. The combination of characters and actors is what made the mob theme so interesting. I have honestly never seen mob members depicted so realistically. In real life there would be someone that is the silent type or a person who loves to kill people. This movie covered all of the characteristics of a mob member and that is what made this such a great movie.

The Goodfellas

Stagecoach

During the last week of class we have been watching "Stagecoach." This film is a black and white western that takes place in Monument Valley. Director, John Ford, used new special effects which added to the movies greatness. I found that in the attack of the Indians scene Ford really brought out his knowledge of films. I really feel like he put a lot of extra effort into this scene. The scene begins when an Indian shooting at the stagecoach. After this the scene carries on with the Indians chasing after the stagecoach. As the Indians advance on the stagecoach Ringo, Hatfield and Curly tend to pick off the Indians. The most amazing part is when an Indian jumps on to the horses leading the stagecoach. But as the Indian gets closer to the stagecoach, Hatfield shoots him and he falls down into the straps holding the horses together. Hatfield shoots him again and he falls off the straps and down under the stagecoach. What I learned after the movie was that the Indian did this in real life. I was surprised that the stuntman was able to do this without getting hurt.
The one thing that really got to me in the attack scene was how John Ford depicted the Indians. He made the Indians seem like savages and did not provide a reason for why they wanted to kill the people on the stagecoach. I also think it is bad how Indians are always seen wearing feather head bands and shooting bow and arrows. I know that in some perspective that this is true in real life but still it’s very stereotypical. If this scene would have given us some meaning to why the Indians were after the stagecoach, I think it would have made it more powerful.

Citizen Kane

In the movie “Citizen Kane,” Orson Welles uses many cinematographic aspects in order to create a Hollywood masterpiece. When we see Kane (Orson Welles) in the movie he is usually looked at with either a close-up or a low-angle. We tend to see him in a close-up when the director wants us to pay attention to his facial expressions. For example, when Susan Alexander (Dorothy Comingore) has just finished with her opera singing, Kane stands up and claps as hard as he can. We then see a close up of his face and are shown how concentrated he is on trying to in a way sway the audience into believing that he really thinks she’s good. The scene after this shows the viewer Susan’s view of Kane as he yells at her. The camera produces a low angle shot which shows us the fear that Kane instills in her. This camera angle really shows how powerful and daunting Kane is. There is one point in the film where we see Kane as weak and this is produced again by a low angle shot. After Kane loses the election we see that Kane is alone in a room which was supposed to hold a celebration (as shown in the picture above). Seeing Kane through a low angle really shows us how alone and how he truly feels.

"Notorious" (1946)

Alfred Hitchcock tells a patriotic romance in his film “Notorious.” In his movie T.R. Devlin (Cary Grant) is assigned to commission Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman) to spy on a Nazi friend of her imprisoned father. She is told that she must move to Rio and start a relationship with Alexander Sebastian (Claude Rains). While in Rio, T.R. and Alicia fall in love which poses problems with their mission. After meeting Alicia in Rio, Alexander asks Alicia to marry him right away.
This film has great historical significance because it is set right after World War II. The whole plot is based off the fact that Alicia’s father was a spy for the Nazi’s during this time. This movie came out two years after World War II, which made this movie even more significant at the time. “Notorious” back in 1946 brought back emotions of what it was like during World War II. People were being put on trial at this time for war treason and were a very controversial topic.
Throughout the movie I found myself at the edge of my seat wondering if Sebastian was going to find out that Alicia was a spy. The scene in that produced the most suspense was when Alicia stole the key from Alexander’s key ring so that she could get into the locked wine cellar. When she stole the key I thought that she was definitely going to get caught. When Sebastian found out that the key was missing, he still had no clue about what was taking place.
A lot of the time during this movie I found that Alfred Hitchcock was giving me, the viewer, hints as to what was coming up. He used a lot of close-ups throughout the movie to tell us what was going on. For example, in one of the scenes we hear a man gasp after looking at something and then a second later we see a close-up of the wine bottle that he was staring at. It just so happens that later in the movie we find this wine bottle is very significant to the story plot and tells us what the Nazis are up to.
Film editor Theron Warth used mostly dissolves in “Notorious” to connect two scenes to one another. This is where the film lacked a little; I didn’t feel like it used editing to its full extent. He could have used more sound, and I thought if used temporal relations at the beginning and reorganized the story to flow nicer.
I found “Notorious” to exceed my expectation. I usually think of black and white movies as dull and boring. In this movie though, I didn’t notice the color because I was so involved with the plot. The characters seemed to really work together. The relationship between Alicia and Devlin was very believable and added to the mystery element of the movie. It wasn’t very believable however, that Alicia could randomly start acting like she was in love with Sebastian. Yet again, she did seem to easily fall in love. The acting in this movie makes the fact that “Notorious” is in the top 100 just.